


lead me to the garden

by littleluthor



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - No Powers, Angst with a Happy Ending, F/F, Light Angst, dont worry theres no cheating under this roof, just a misunderstanding, the betty au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-24
Updated: 2020-07-24
Packaged: 2021-03-04 20:00:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,466
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25492009
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/littleluthor/pseuds/littleluthor
Summary: It was a meeting of mere seconds, preserved for eternity. Context-less and for all intents and purposes, entirely incriminating.“I need to go.” Kara thrust the phone into his chest before she turned around, a piercing pair of green eyes watching from the end of the hallway.
Relationships: Kara Danvers & Lena Luthor, Kara Danvers/Lena Luthor
Comments: 27
Kudos: 492





	lead me to the garden

**Author's Note:**

> SWIFTIES HOW WE HOLDING UP i had so much fun with this one so i hope that u enjoy it too <3

The Rojas’ garden was incredibly intimidating.

The grounds were vast, adorned with great oak trees almost as tall as the house. Blooming rose bushes and green hedges carved with noticeable precision stood proudly on the kept lawn. Kara was sure there was a lake somewhere over on the south side, too.

An elegant fountain sat proudly right in the center of the space - there were usually bright, shining lights beaming up from the bottom, but they were switched off tonight. No one was supposed to be out in the garden during Andrea’s parties, and the fountain was a beacon to the drunk teenaged eye.

“Hey, what are you doing all the way out here?” she asked, unable to hide her smile as Lena glanced up from the marble bench that she was sitting on. The wind had mussed her earlier curls, and her lipstick had worn off from sipping on her drink all night. She looked beautiful.

Lena scooted over to the side so that Kara could sit down next to her. “Just wanted some space to think.”

“And what are you thinking about?” Kara tilted her head, noting the way her eyebrows furrowed.

“You.” Lena shrugged. “Us. I guess.”

Kara slipped out of her denim jacket, aware of the goosebumps on Lena’s pale arms as she wrapped it around her shoulders. “What about us has you sitting out here all by yourself, in the cold?”

Lena went quiet for a long moment, her fingers toying with the hair tie on her wrist - something she only does when she’s feeling anxious - as Kara patiently awaited her response.

The previous evening had seen a soft rain shower, and it was discernible in the freshness of the plants around them. Kara counted twenty-eight perfectly formed roses on the rose bush beside her before Lena finally spoke up again.

“We’re friends, aren’t we?” her voice was quiet, barely audible over the distant thud of the party back at the house.

“Lena what- of course we’re friends.” Kara turned to face her, her knee brushed up against Lena’s thigh as she straddled the bench. “What’s going on? Where'd this come from?”

“Are we�—" She exhaled slowly. “Are we _only_ friends?” Lena averted her eyes, wrapping her hair tie repeatedly around her fingers as Kara’s heart threatened to burst free from her chest.

Such a simple question, with so much weight behind it that Kara was sure her knees would’ve buckled had she been standing up.

The unexpectedness of it had rendered her brain unable to process the thoughts rapidly coursing through her mind.

They two of them had tiptoed around the topic for almost a year. Was Kara aware that their friendship wasn’t entirely platonic? Sure.

She never would’ve been brave enough to bring it up though.

At times she feared that she was so lost inside her own head that she’d made the whole thing up, that the hand-holding and the sleepover spooning and the cheek/ forehead/ anywhere-on-Lena’s-face-other-than-her-lips kissing was just an affectionate display of friendship.

When they watch movies together and Lena tucks her head right between Kara’s neck and shoulder - eating maltesers from the pack resting on Kara’s stomach, and doing her best to make Kara giggle so that they spill out - it fills her with a warmth so consuming that she feels as if she might burst.

Does that make them _gay?_

Maybe.

“Andrea is my friend,” Kara whispered. The puzzled look on Lena’s face spurred her on. “Eve is my friend, too. I don’t think about kissing them.” She closed her eyes. “I think about kissing you. A lot.”

“I think about kissing you too, ” Lena admitted, cheeks trembling ever so slightly from trying to suppress her smile. “A lot.”

Kara’s eyes fluttered open, coming face to face with Lena for the first time since sitting down outside. She wrapped an arm around her waist, slowly, ensuring that Lena was comfortable with the gesture before she gently pulled her closer on the bench.

Her usual soft detergent scent was masked by a perfume so sweet that Kara ached to bury her nose in Lena’s neck and nuzzle until the smell wore off.

Instead, she watched as Lena’s tongue slipped out to dampen her lips. Her eyes reflected the light from the half-moon, smiling down on them as their lips pressed together for the very first time.

* * *

“Lena Luthor?” The teacher called out, eyes falling on the empty seat beside Kara when no answer came. “Has anyone seen Lena this morning?”

Kara glanced around the classroom, already knowing that Lena wasn’t inside given that she had been waiting for her to appear for the last fifteen minutes. Truthfully, she was getting a little - a _lot -_ worried. Lena hadn’t returned any of her calls or texts since Sunday morning, after Andrea’s party.

“She transferred, Sir. She’s in Miss Jones’ homeroom now,” one of the kids in the back explained.

“What, _what_?” Kara shifted in her seat to face them.

“Miss Danvers, eyes to the front. I’m not finished taking attendance yet.”

She reluctantly turned around, but not before catching the expression on Inez’ face across the room. The glint in eyes told Kara everything that she needed to know.

* * *

“Lena! Lena, hey!” Kara followed after the head of familiar dark hair, moving through the crowded hallways with such swift grace that she feared she would never catch up with her.

“Kara, hi,” a voice called out to her, and Kara briefly paused in her attempt to get to Lena. “How are you?”

It was Winn.

Winn who had asked her to dance on Saturday night, and taken her acceptance as meaning something more than it did.

Winn who had wrapped his arms around her waist and pressed a slow, gentle kiss to her lips.

“I’m so sorry,” Kara had told him, pulling away. “You’re so sweet, Winn. I just-..”

“I get it.” Winn’s face had looked utterly devastated, the realization that he had mistaken their friendship for something more washed over him as Kara put more space between them. “I should have asked, I’m so sorry for breaching your trust like that.”

“Yes, you should have asked,” Kara agreed. “You’re a great friend, Winn. It’s just that there’s.. I think there’s someone else.”

Kara had left Winn standing alone, and immediately gone looking for that exact someone. The very someone sitting out on the bench by the fountain in the garden.

It had been two days since the party, and while Kara felt a little bad for Winn, she had no interest in sticking around in the hallway with him. She had a more important conversation in mind, and it wasn’t to be had with anyone but Lena.

“Look, Winn. I really need to go, alright?” She raised herself up onto her tiptoes to get a better view of the sea of heads in the hallway.

“I just came to tell you, um, there’s a photo of us.” Winn winced. “We’re in the background, uh, you know. _Kissing.”_

“Are you kidding?” Kara’s stomach sank so quickly that she feared she was going to throw up.

Winn, unfortunately, was not kidding.

He turned his phone screen around, and there they were. Off to the side of the screen, Winn’s arms around her waist and their lips pressed tightly together.

It was a meeting of mere seconds, preserved for eternity. Context-less and for all intents and purposes, entirely incriminating.

“I need to go.” Kara thrust his phone into his chest before she turned around, a piercing pair of green eyes watching from the end of the hallway.

She was gone before Kara could blink.

* * *

_Lena, can we talk? -K_

_I need to talk to you, please. -K_

_Meet me at the park tonight at ten, please? I’ll bring pizza fries and cherry coke. -K_

_I’m here, if you want to talk. Please let me explain. -K_

_You’re not coming, are you? -K_

_I miss you. I’m so sorry. -K_

_This is so fucked. Please, Lena. Please don’t shut me out. -K_

_I love you. -K_

_* * *_

It had been almost a week since Winn had kissed Kara. Almost a week since Kara had shared her first, incredible kiss with Lena, and Lena still hadn’t reached out to her.

By the time Friday rolled around, Kara was almost relieved that she wouldn’t have to deal with the ache of seeing her best friend in the hallways and not being able to make her smile.

She lived for those moments. The ones in which they shared alone, just the two of them.

She had almost caved earlier in the week and showed up to their regular study date at Lena’s house. Every Wednesday, while Lillian Luthor was working late, Kara would go over under the guise of studying. They rarely did though, they usually spent the time cooking in Lena’s ridiculously oversized kitchen, or blasting music upstairs that couldn’t be heard from the end of the hallway given the sheer size of the house. Sometimes they got takeout and took a nap together, and sometimes they just talked.

Kara had grabbed her skateboard, just like always, but had frozen upon seeing the house come into view. It felt as though the wind had been knocked out of her, and she’d spent the rest of the evening alone in the park, so as not to tip Eliza off that something was wrong.

She missed Lena so much, and she so badly wanted to explain everything to her.

Truthfully, Kara was a little mad at Lena in return for not giving her a chance. Hadn’t their friendship meant more than that? Did she really think Kara would kiss her, and then swap spit with some random dude immediately after? Didn’t she care enough to find out Kara’s side of things?

The more time that went by without talking to her, the more Kara got mad about it.

* * *

“Have you seen Lena?” Kara yelled to be heard over the music, flinching at the anger that appeared in her friend’s eyes.

It had been a few weeks since the last party, and while Kara hadn’t explicitly been invited, she knew it was the only chance she would get to see Lena outside of school.

“Go fuck yourself, Danvers,” Andrea spat.

Kara took a few steps back. “Hey, it wasn’t like that, alright? Back off.”

“You didn’t tell Lena you wanted to be with her, and then kiss some random fucking dude? There are photos of it.”

“Exactly. I didn’t. I swear I didn’t. It happened before, and _he_ kissed _me._ I swear, Andrea. Why does everyone think I’m so capable of hurting Lena like this? She’s- She means everything to me.” Kara was mortified by the tears that were threatening to fall, but she was too determined to care. “I need to see her, to explain. _Please.”_

Andrea seemed to study her for a second, the cup of vodka sloshing around in her hand as she stumbled a little. “She’s in the garden. Go out the back door.”

Kara nodded her thanks to Andrea before slipping through the hallway and out the back door. The benches were empty, and she felt a sinking feeling in her gut as she realized that Lena could’ve just decided to go home.

“What are you doing here?”

Kara startled at the voice, turning around to see Lena standing on the porch, wrapped in a cardigan beneath the light. She looked just as beautiful as she always did, and Kara was stopped in her tracks for a few seconds.

“I came to see you. You’ve been avoiding me for the last few weeks.”

“Yeah, no shit,” Lena attempted a scoff, but Kara heard the way her throat hitched.

“You’ve got it all wrong, Lena. This is all just one big misunderstanding.”

“I saw the photo. Inez sent it to me the day after the party. I thought we- I thought you wanted this, with me.”

“I _did,_ ” Kara stressed. “I _do._ The photo was taken way out of context. It happened before I came out here to find you, and I told Winn that I was sorry. I told him there was someone else, and then we kissed and it was- _God_ , Lena. It’s all I’ve wanted for the last year. You’re all I’ve wanted. How could you ever think that I would do that to you?”

“So you didn’t- You..” Lena’s eyes went wide as she began fumbling over her words.

“I didn’t do anything,” Kara struggled not to raise her voice, instead opting to take a few steps closer to Lena so that she could be hear properly. “You just switched your homeroom and stopped answering my texts, and I didn’t do _anything!_ No one would talk to me, and they didn’t even care enough to find out my side of things. _”_

“Oh god.” Lena turned away, fingers buried in the hair at her scalp. “I’m- I’m so sorry, Kara. I’m _so_ sorry.”

“I just want my best friend back,” Kara admitted as she took a seat on the porch step. “Maybe we jumped the gun on the whole kissing thing. We’re only 17, we don’t know anything.”

“I know that I missed you.” Lena’s voice cracked on the words as she sat down beside Kara. The cardigan she was wearing was too big for her - her hands had disappeared entirely beneath the sleeves - and it was making Kara’s heart ache for some reason. “I know that- I know that kissing you felt like the best feeling in the whole world, and I know that you need some time to get back to where we were.”

“Yeah, I think I do,” Kara admitted. “I know you were hurt, but you hurt me too. You should have spoken to me.”

“I’m really sorry.”

“I’m sorry, too.”

* * *

_Fifteen years later._

“God, the teenage angst of it all,” Lena laughed into the rim of her wine glass as Sam recounted Ruby’s latest high school drama.

“Hindsight is a great thing, isn’t it? It’s so hard to explain to her that it won’t always be this hard.” Sam refilled her own glass before settling back on the couch.

“It feels like the worst thing in the world at the time,” Lena agreed. “Did I ever tell you about the first kiss Kara and I shared? I thought she cheated on me right after it, there was a photo and everything.”

“No way! You thought butch barbie was cheating on you?”

“Hey.” Kara flipped Sam off with the hand wrapped around Lena’s shoulders, jostling her so much that her wine almost spilled down her shirt.

“Stop that,” Lena giggled as she clamped Kara’s hand in both of her own. “Anyway. We were at a party, and she found me sitting out in the garden..”

**Author's Note:**

> questions? comments? concerns? the lyrics to betty by taylor swift? leave them below xx


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